A grim warning To long term smokers.
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rickthexpreacher
Posts: 57 Member
Hi,
I am using this board to encourage you to give up the weed by using my experience to show what can happen if you don't break the addiction.
Obviously everyone knows that smoking kills and most publicity is given to lung cancer. Rightly so, because the prognosis isn't good for anyone with this evil disease. But folks, there are other nasties about and I'm here to tell of one. to tell you how it is from a personal perspective, not theoretical. not text book but living with it. It's called COPD-Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disorder. It can take the form of bronchitis, emphysema or both. I have emphysema.
I discovered I had the disease in 2008 when my entire respiratory system shut down and I lapsed into unconsciousness where I stayed for two days. I was kept in Intensive Care for 1 week and in chest ward for another 10 days while I was pumped out and pumped up. Pumped out? Yeah, the crap in my lungs. For 3 days, the gunge taken out of my lungs was the jet black colour and consistency of the tar macadam used to surface roads. Even on the day I was discharged from hospital the stuff coming out was coloured. Pumped up? Yep, my lungs had seized up and couldn't take in and redistribute enough oxygen around my (large) body. So I had an oxygen mask attached 24/7 for 8 days reducing thereafter until I could take in enough unaided.
I should have be more aware, I'd probably had it for years but chose to ignore the increasing breathlessness when I walked anywhere or exerted myself in other ways. I smoked about 40 cigarettes a day fro many years after I stopped playing sport. I have destroyed 77%- let me repeat that 77% of my lung function. It cannot be recovered because the lung sacs here gone. So folks, I am being kept alive by the equivalent of less than half a healthy lung. Because I never had a "smokers cough" i thought it would never happen to me. It did & there is no-one to blame except myself.
I have to exercise to keep the remaining lungs efficient otherwise they will slowly deteriorate. For me that is an issue because I am lower limb disabled and can barely walk. So I have to go to the gym and do cardio there. I take steroids ever day plus two other inhalers. the steroids keep down inflammation in the lungs, the inhalers open up the airways to assist oxygen intake but they can only do a little.So the slightest effort like going upstairs at home makes me breathless and this is even tho' I work out. The steroids help to put on weight. COPD is not usually a killer but it leaves the sufferer very susceptible to chest infections and viruses and it is those that kill. As soon as I have a minor sniffle, I'm given mega strong steroids and they make the weight pile on. It's a vicious circle because the more weight I carry, the more difficult it is to avoid breathlessness. But without the steroids, the sniffle could develop into a full blown chest infection. Since 2008 I've had 13 attacks of pneumonia.
When I was diagnosed with COPD, the Chest consultant gave me a stark choice. Stop smoking or be dead in 12 months. I suddenly found an irresistible desire to live long. So giving up was not difficult!! It helped being bedridden for a couple of weeks in hospital-just took the edge off and I've never had the slightest urge to smoke again. But I know for some it's difficult.
COPD isn't just about the lungs. They carry oxygen all over the body so when they fall short other things happen. My brain was starved of the right level of oxygen and it affected my memory. I now have a terrible short term memory and this is a common complaint with COPD. My skin became very dry and peeled easily, my hair became dry.
If I lose much more lung function, I will have to be attached permanently to an oxygen tank 24/7. Great prospect eh?.
Listen, people.
Smoking is evil. It is an addiction just as heroin is an addiction, just as alcohol can become an addiction. If you are serious about stopping, treat it as an addiction. Do your cold turkey in the best environment you can-away from temptation if possible. Don't keep packets of cigarettes around or lighters. Chew gum so your mouth has something else to do and get some worry beads or a ball point pen so that yours hands also have something to fiddle with. Avoid places where there is tobacco smoke-at least for the first month or so. If you are in the UK and go shopping, hold your breath as you go to the entrance of the superstore-all the addicts congregate there!.
Copy the outlook of alcoholics- you are a recovering addict and only one puff away from reverting. Soon, like me, you will become an arch critic of smoking and smokers. Some call it hypocritical, I don't care. Smokers stink- their clothes stink, their hair stinks, their hands stink, their breath is vile. It's like kissing an ash tray yuck! You put other peoples health at risk through secondary smoking. Selfish, anti social..
If you want support add me as a friend, otherwise good luck & persevere
I am using this board to encourage you to give up the weed by using my experience to show what can happen if you don't break the addiction.
Obviously everyone knows that smoking kills and most publicity is given to lung cancer. Rightly so, because the prognosis isn't good for anyone with this evil disease. But folks, there are other nasties about and I'm here to tell of one. to tell you how it is from a personal perspective, not theoretical. not text book but living with it. It's called COPD-Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disorder. It can take the form of bronchitis, emphysema or both. I have emphysema.
I discovered I had the disease in 2008 when my entire respiratory system shut down and I lapsed into unconsciousness where I stayed for two days. I was kept in Intensive Care for 1 week and in chest ward for another 10 days while I was pumped out and pumped up. Pumped out? Yeah, the crap in my lungs. For 3 days, the gunge taken out of my lungs was the jet black colour and consistency of the tar macadam used to surface roads. Even on the day I was discharged from hospital the stuff coming out was coloured. Pumped up? Yep, my lungs had seized up and couldn't take in and redistribute enough oxygen around my (large) body. So I had an oxygen mask attached 24/7 for 8 days reducing thereafter until I could take in enough unaided.
I should have be more aware, I'd probably had it for years but chose to ignore the increasing breathlessness when I walked anywhere or exerted myself in other ways. I smoked about 40 cigarettes a day fro many years after I stopped playing sport. I have destroyed 77%- let me repeat that 77% of my lung function. It cannot be recovered because the lung sacs here gone. So folks, I am being kept alive by the equivalent of less than half a healthy lung. Because I never had a "smokers cough" i thought it would never happen to me. It did & there is no-one to blame except myself.
I have to exercise to keep the remaining lungs efficient otherwise they will slowly deteriorate. For me that is an issue because I am lower limb disabled and can barely walk. So I have to go to the gym and do cardio there. I take steroids ever day plus two other inhalers. the steroids keep down inflammation in the lungs, the inhalers open up the airways to assist oxygen intake but they can only do a little.So the slightest effort like going upstairs at home makes me breathless and this is even tho' I work out. The steroids help to put on weight. COPD is not usually a killer but it leaves the sufferer very susceptible to chest infections and viruses and it is those that kill. As soon as I have a minor sniffle, I'm given mega strong steroids and they make the weight pile on. It's a vicious circle because the more weight I carry, the more difficult it is to avoid breathlessness. But without the steroids, the sniffle could develop into a full blown chest infection. Since 2008 I've had 13 attacks of pneumonia.
When I was diagnosed with COPD, the Chest consultant gave me a stark choice. Stop smoking or be dead in 12 months. I suddenly found an irresistible desire to live long. So giving up was not difficult!! It helped being bedridden for a couple of weeks in hospital-just took the edge off and I've never had the slightest urge to smoke again. But I know for some it's difficult.
COPD isn't just about the lungs. They carry oxygen all over the body so when they fall short other things happen. My brain was starved of the right level of oxygen and it affected my memory. I now have a terrible short term memory and this is a common complaint with COPD. My skin became very dry and peeled easily, my hair became dry.
If I lose much more lung function, I will have to be attached permanently to an oxygen tank 24/7. Great prospect eh?.
Listen, people.
Smoking is evil. It is an addiction just as heroin is an addiction, just as alcohol can become an addiction. If you are serious about stopping, treat it as an addiction. Do your cold turkey in the best environment you can-away from temptation if possible. Don't keep packets of cigarettes around or lighters. Chew gum so your mouth has something else to do and get some worry beads or a ball point pen so that yours hands also have something to fiddle with. Avoid places where there is tobacco smoke-at least for the first month or so. If you are in the UK and go shopping, hold your breath as you go to the entrance of the superstore-all the addicts congregate there!.
Copy the outlook of alcoholics- you are a recovering addict and only one puff away from reverting. Soon, like me, you will become an arch critic of smoking and smokers. Some call it hypocritical, I don't care. Smokers stink- their clothes stink, their hair stinks, their hands stink, their breath is vile. It's like kissing an ash tray yuck! You put other peoples health at risk through secondary smoking. Selfish, anti social..
If you want support add me as a friend, otherwise good luck & persevere
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Replies
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I'm sorry you have to go through that, rick. I am firmly committed to staying a non-smoker and reading your story just confirms how right that decision to stop smoking was. Thanks for sharing and take care.0
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If it helps to keep you off the dreaded weed well, I am pleased.
Incidentally well done on your weight loss journey. That is a great result. I only have another 130lbs to go!
Rick0 -
Thanks for posting this! I just wanted to add that the damages of smoking really can happen to anyone, at any age. I know a lot of people think (and I used to think this too)- "oh well I'm too young to be THAT much affected. I'll quit before any real damage is done." I quit earlier this year because my asthma kept acting up. Then I relapsed...quit again for a couple weeks and cheated again last Sunday. Just one day. The next day, I spent with a nebulizer in urgent care before picking up two new asthma medications to go along with my rescue inhaler, and one of these medications I'll now be on for life even though up until the past year or so, my asthma was only illness and exercise-induced. I told my fiance, who has been trying to quit, "if you don't quit, you're going to end up like me." He said, "No, I won't because I don't have asthma." I replied, "And what do you think emphysema or COPD feels like? It probably feels like this but more severe and constant." I felt better after a couple days but last night I went to pool league and this time it was at a bar where people smoke inside. It's never bothered me before but last night I couldn't handle it. I had trouble breathing and had to leave after less than 2 hours. I'm only 29, never smoked more than a pack a day, and smoked for about 11 years.
I suppose the good thing is after a scare like that smoking doesn't even sound tempting right now. But the sick thing is I know that it won't be long before I AM tempted and before my head starts playing tricks on me, telling me why "just one" won't hurt. Rickthepreach, you're absolutely right- it IS an addiction just like any other addiction. Just because it's legal that doesn't make it less harmful.0 -
Thanks for your reply, Moxie. If you think it will help, show my post to your fiance. I never had asthma, smokers cough, bronchitis or any of the well known symptoms. Except, maybe, breathlessness which I used to put down to general unfitness. Was I ever wrong!
You have had a scare- well a bit more than that because I appreciate asthma is very unpleasant. Just do everything you can to break the back of your addiction and keep nagging your fiance.
Rick0
